Yesterday we did the drive back from Soroca to Chisinua. There were a few things we wanted to see along the way, so we left the hotel around 9:30am.
By 10:30am we had arrived at our first stop. An abandoned soviet military bunker
There's very little info about it online. From what I can find, the bunker was under construction at the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
There's a narrow unmarked concrete road leading to the installation in the forest.
I guess this is as far as we can drive!
And then we had to walk about 1 km.
Two unfinished structures.
But the best part was a little further in. We got there, but some very unfriendly looking dogs were barking and heading our way. Unfortunately, we quickly decided to turn around. Didn't even have time to snap a single photo! The dogs stopped and we carried on back to the car.
But, I did find some photos online. Here are the best ones... http://diez.md/2014/04/03/foto-buncarul-sovietic-din-satul-oliscani-soldanesti-transformat-in-ruine/
Back at the car, we drove on to the village of Tipova on the bank of the Dniester River.
There is a large cave monastery built into the side of the steep cliff that dates back to the 15th century.
Beautiful view. Moldova on the left and Transnistria on the right.
A fairly steep path to get down there.
We were the only one's around.
Neat!
Careful...no railings here.
View from one of the caves.
When we were ready to leave, there was a fairly steep path leading out. There were some steps carved into the stone, but it was still a little tough.
I took a video for you...turn up the volume...
What a fun last day in Moldova.
We arrived back in Chisinau about 4:00pm and headed directly to our AirBnb host (the same one we stayed with a week ago) for a one night stay.
Already took our car rental back this Wednesday morning. This afternoon, we go to the train station for our 4:45pm departure on the overnight train to Bucharest. Should be quite the experience on a 50 year old Soviet luxury train...or at least it was considered luxury 50 years ago! I guess we'll see. Oh, and they stop the train at the border to change the wheels because of the different track sizes. Should be interesting!
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Breathtaking - heart was pounding as you climbed - but well worth the view! What a fantastic trip these last weeks. Thanks for taking us all along. Loved it!!!! B&C
ReplyDeleteActually it was only a very small section of steps that were that steep but it sure made a good video! :-) The view was a good one though and it was nice that we had a blue sky day.
DeleteChanging the wheels in the train should be interesting, hope there is not too many.
ReplyDeleteIt was interesting and the whole procedure took about 2 hours in total to complete.
DeleteWow! You really get the perspective of how steep it is when Ruth takes the camera!
ReplyDeleteYep, it sure does, luckily this was the only section that was this steep and we could have gone back the way we came if we didn't want to climb it but this way was more fun! :-)
DeleteI can't believe your journey is over. I've had so much fun going along with you. So many interesting places. I'm looking forward to the wheel change. That is something I never thought about. Safe travels home.
ReplyDeleteI know, us too! The time really did seem to fly by and we had a good time here exploring. It was a like colder than what we were expecting though, so if we had one piece of advise to give to someone planning to travel here would be to come in late spring, summer or early fall!
DeleteThe wheel change was neat, more about it in the next post.
Loved the video to your climb. I don't know why I was thinking you fly from here to Spain. The old Russian bunker could be turned into a wine cellar. I always wonder why they leave abandon buildings. It's seems they could finish building for other purposes. I especially like your castle visits and pictures of rooms, host, and food. Loved the cities and country side. Too bad there was a language barrier....probably locals had a lot to share about history, family, economy, etc.
ReplyDeleteIt would certainly make sense to fly from here to Spain but we want to spend Christmas with our families this year. It has been far too long since we have done that and it will be our first one to spend with our grandchildren. Not looking forward to the cold though!
DeleteYes, the language barrier does pose a bit of a problem at times, you can't just go up and start talking to a stranger about the history of their village! We did spend time with locals who spoke English, so we were able to get a good understanding of the country and it's culture, the food and the economy which was very helpful.
P.S. I found a web site that shows old abandon prison cells turned to hostels here in USA and other countries. A good use of abandon buildings.
ReplyDeleteOur home town of Ottawa has one of these hostels, it used to be the jail back in the 1800's right up to 1972. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_Jail_Hostel
DeleteThank you for the guided tour for the last 6 weeks. Have a safe trip back to Ottawa.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it. Now we have to start getting our ducks in a row for Spain.
DeleteShould you really be going on those type of climbs when no one else is around?
ReplyDeleteEverything about the hike to the cave monastery was easy, the only problem spot was the one Kevin videoed, they were very old stairs and only a very short section and if we really didn't want to go up them we just had to use the alternative pathway which we had originally come down on and spotted these steps but didn't want to descend on them so instead we chose to climb up them instead which brought up back to the pathway.
DeleteYou both are quite adventurous not sure I would have made that climb! Sorry to see these posts coming to an end when you get back to Canada! I felt like I was on this trip with you both! Thanks for the adventure!
ReplyDeleteWe do like to explore! :-)
DeleteAs I have mentioned this one steep section was only a short one so it wasn't too bad but it was steep. We noticed the steps when we were first descending down to the caves but choose not to go down them . Coming back up we went a different route and that route took us up this small section, it was actually quite fun.
No worries about this trip ending, we will have a whole new adventure ahead of us come January 1st and this is one we are really looking forward too.